How Does Your Income Stack Up?

Do you know how well you’re doing income-wise? Many of us have no accurate idea because we don’t know how much our peers earn.

While constantly comparing yourself to others may lead to unhappiness, you should know where you stand because it dictates your strategy going forward. If you don’t know where you are today, you can’t plan your future.

We are often asked which businesses are wise investments. Different businesses require different skill sets and have a different cost to set up. Some require extensive and expensive education.

According to the latest Edmonton census, the median household income in the Edmonton area is $91,860. This means that the middle-class in Edmonton is earning between $45,930 and $137,790 (50% from the median).

After-tax

AREA

Median Gross

After-tax

Monthly

Henderson Estates, Edm.

182,912

139,404

11,617

Sherwood Park

180,224

137,536

11,461

Oakmont, St. Albert

153,329

118,844

9,904

Oleskiw, Edmonton

150,221

116,684

9,724

Sturgeon County

141,509

110,628

9,219

Castlebrook

121,771

96,910

8,076

Edmonton Average

94,447

77,920

6,493

Edmonton Median

91,860

76,122

6,344

Kennedale

78,379

66,014

5,501

CLIENT GROUP

After-tax

Monthly

B2B tech or Consumables

240,000

20,000

CNC Machine shops

240,000

20,000

Single-idea restaurants

240,000

20,000

B2B Trades

180,000

15,000

Salons

120,000

10,000

Takeaways:

Castlebrook’s neighborhoods (Chambery and Elsinore) are examples of nice neighborhoods to blend in. Far enough from the problems with lower IQ neighborhoods and nice enough to enjoy without being labeled as being targetted as being rich in Henderson Estates.

Even if you are not involved in a tech-oriented business, you can use strategies like outsourcing accounting and customer service, leverage automation apps, and consider disintermediation (cut out the middlemen – source from China, or cut out the bank and learn about cryptocurrencies). SaaS businesses generate on average $150K-$200K revenue per employee (it can be as low as $100k of revenue per employee or as high as $300K per employee).

The similarities in restaurants and B2B businesses are scalable practices. Although you only have to make more than $16k month after-tax to be considered in Edmonton’s 1%, this is only because of the large amounts of people with low reported income that bring down the average. The real 1% are the more than 30 individuals who earn more than $1 million per year, and even more who are earning between $500K – $1M per year.

This brings up another question, “Why Edmonton?”

Edmonton is a global leader in the artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). The University of Alberta was ranked #2 in the world for AI and ML.

Alberta is a monster economy and even during a recession, Alberta’s per capita GDP exceeds $80K – on par with Switzerland’s.

With housing more affordable in Alberta vs. Toronto and Vancouver, there is more disposable income to capture from Alberta’s affluent consumers.

If you don’t like your after-tax take household income, improve it since time is the only resource you can never get back.